All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we’re probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

God’s mercy and grace give me hope – for myself, and for our world.

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing.

No cause justifies the deaths of innocent people.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.

Working with our military community has been the biggest honor of my life.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

Indians felt despondent about Indian governance. Changing that atmosphere of gloom was a very challenging task, and I faced many difficulties in rectifying the situation and bringing back confidence and hope.

It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.

A man’s delight in looking forward to and hoping for some particular satisfaction is a part of the pleasure flowing out of it, enjoyed in advance. But this is afterward deducted, for the more we look forward to anything the less we enjoy it when it comes.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.

The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can’t have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I’d rather not be in a cage. I’d rather be dead. And it’s real simple. And I think it’s not that uncommon.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist.

We can’t allow the world’s worst leaders to blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world’s worst weapons.

Simple goes a long way.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

He chose to honor us with His priesthood. So we honor Him by honoring His priesthood – both its power and those who bear it.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity.

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature – opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow.

We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.

I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.

True liberal government is founded on the emancipation of men.

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

All I really had was a suitcase and my drums. So I took them up to Seattle and hoped it would work.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.